Everything Changes
by dream0utloud27
Summary: Gabriella, a recent college graduate still stuck living in her mother's house, dreams of moving out of her small town and into a big city where she can live an adventurous and free life. This all changes after she develops feelings for one of her co-workers. Will Gabriella leave everything that she knows behind, or stay and embrace the adventure that tumbles into her life?
1. Chapter 1

Everything Changes

Chapter 1

Throwing her purse on the kitchen counter, Gabriella peeked into the refrigerator to see if there was anything good to eat for dinner. Like usual, there wasn't much in there; a few yogurts, a box of orange juice, some eggs, last night's leftover pasta, a half-empty bottle of white wine. After taking the leftover pasta out of the refrigerator and sticking it into the microwave, Gabriella reached for the white wine and poured herself a small glass. What she really needed was a barrel of wine after the day that she had.

Looking across the kitchen Gabriella spotted a note scribbled on a piece of scrap paper, most likely from her mother. She walked over to the note and started to read the familiar handwriting.

"Gabriella,

I went out to visit your Abuela Rosa at the nursing home. Probably won't be back until after you are asleep. Leftover pasta is in the fridge. Can't wait to talk about your first day at the new job in the morning!

Love you,

Mama"

"Great," Gabriella sighed as she walked over to the microwave to retrieve her dinner, "another night alone." Taking the bowl of pasta and her glass of wine, Gabriella walked over to the living room and turned on the television. Hopefully, a couple of episodes of House Hunters and the wine would lull her to sleep. Just as she finished up her dinner, Gabriella looked down to see her phone light up with a text message from her boyfriend, Danny. Typing in the passcode for her phone, Gabriella took a deep breath and clicked on the message which read, "Come over, i'm lonely."

"Ugh, why, why, why, why." Gabriella groaned as she tossed her phone onto the other end of the couch. She didn't feel like going over to Danny's small, dark, smelly apartment, and she certainly didn't feel like having him over her house. It's not that she didn't want to see Danny- she was supposed to want to spend time with him all of the time, but she really didn't want to have to deal with him. He was probably drunk and would fall asleep on her after five minutes of being together. Maybe she could pretend like she had already fallen asleep, or maybe she could just tell him that she didn't feel like going to his apartment. The second option would only make Danny angry, so she chose to stick with the first option.

Taking her empty bowl and putting it into the sink, Gabriella checked to make sure that all of the downstairs doors were locked before turning off the television and grabbing her phone in her retreat up to her bedroom. It was only 8:30pm, but if she wanted to convincingly explain to Danny that she had fallen asleep early, she had to at least make an effort to fall asleep early.

Gabriella's bedroom was simple, which was just the way that she liked it. She had a queen-sized bed, which was adorned in a simple white comforter and complemented by a couple decorative pillows. Her walls were a shade of light grey, which allowed her to change up her pillows with every season. Luckily, her bedroom also had an attached bathroom, which allowed her to get ready in the morning with ease. Even though it was only herself and her mother living in the house, trying to share a bathroom with Maria in the morning was something that made for a rough start to the day.

After deciding that a warm bubble bath would be a good idea, Gabriella replaced her work clothes with a soft white robe and headed into the bathroom with a book in her hand. Just as she turned the water on, Gabriella heard someone rapidly beeping their horn in front of her house. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, Gabriella walked back into her bedroom and peeked out from between her blinds; it was Danny, coming over to see why she hadn't answered his text message. At this point she had two options: go downstairs and let Danny in (meaning that she wouldn't get much sleep) or just throw her phone on the charger, jump into the bath, and pretend like she had been in there the whole time. Option two seemed like her best bet, so Gabriella ripped her robe off and practically jumped into the bath tub.

Why did Danny have to come over every time she didn't answer one of his text messages or when she missed one of his calls? Why couldn't he just be like a regular boyfriend who brought her flowers and took her out on cute dates? But Danny was regular for Gabriella, and that was all that she knew.

As Gabriella sunk deeper and deeper into the bath, she shut her eyes and prepared herself for the impending panic attack that she could already feel beginning to take over her body. She began to take deep breaths, which surprisingly began to slow her racing heartbeat. This bath was supposed to be enjoyable, but as far as she knew, the bath had turned into another hiding spot. After a few minutes had passed, Danny's honking had ceased and was replaced by the sounds of a car speeding away. Gabriella took a deep breath and allowed herself to fully enjoy the warmth of the bubbly bath water.

 **Hi guys! I haven't written in a while, but I became inspired to start writing again. Let me know what you think of this first chapter; I know it's short but I have some big ideas for the rest of the story. Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

Everything Changes

 **A/N: Thank you for all of the positive feedback and reviews! I am really excited to get this story off the ground and will hopefully be updating it weekly (if all goes well!) I am also going to start working on my other story, Something New, very soon so if you haven't read it, you still have time to get caught up!**

Chapter 2

Gabriella opened her eyes, which were instantly blinded by the sunlight streaming through her balcony doors. She was not ready for another day of work, but thankfully all of her training sessions had been completed the day prior. Reaching over to her nightstand, Gabriella picked up her phone to check the time: 6:30am. She also had a text message from Danny, but refrained from opening it until she was at least semi-conscious and prepared for whatever he had to say. Swinging her legs over the side of her bed, Gabriella placed her feet firmly on the floor and took a deep breath. It was going to be another long day.

Thankfully, Gabriella had washed her hair the night before, which meant that all she had to do this morning was provide a little touch up her natural curls. She absent-mindedly trudged to the bathroom and began to heat up her curling wand. It was too early in the morning to do anything significant with her hair, which prompted Gabriella to stick with a simple look. She usually cared about how her hair looked, but she was just not feeling it today.

Now, a little bit more conscious than she was before, Gabriella walked back to her bed and started to fix her duvet and pillows, which had been tossed around her room in her efforts to get into bed the previous night. Suddenly, Gabriella remembered that she had a text message from Danny. Taking another deep breath, Gabriella opened the message. It read-

" _Gab, come over after you get out of work. I want you to make me brownies."_

"Phew," Gabriella sighed as she responded to Danny's message; it was not as bad as she thought it was going to be. All he wanted were brownies, he was not mad that she ignored him the night before; honestly, he probably didn't even remember that he had driven to her house and annoyed all of the neighbors as he laid his horn on.

Gabriella shifted her attention away from her phone and the agreement that she had made with Danny to come over after she finished with work for the day, and walked over to her closet to pick out an outfit for the work day. After looking through countless skirts, dresses, tops, and pants, she settled on a simple black skirt, a silky aqua button-up top, a silver statement necklace, and a pair of simple black flats. She tousled her hair around and pinned a small section to the back, making it look like she actually tried to put effort in getting dressed. Shutting her light off, Gabriella began to make her way downstairs. Walking into the irregularly quiet kitchen, Gabriella encountered another note written by her mother.

 _"Gabi,_

 _I had to go into work early for a meeting, totally slipped my mind! Abuela says hello and that she wants to see you soon. I'll talk to you after you get home from work, we can make dinner together- I was thinking some type of pasta._

 _Love you,_

 _Mama"_

Putting the note down, Gabriella squeezed her eyes shut to hold in the tears that she could feel forming. She wanted to stay home and have dinner with her mom, she really wanted to. Danny was going to be expecting her, and she couldn't cancel on him. Gabriella scribbled a quick note to her mother, telling her that she promised Danny that she would make him brownies after work, which wouldn't make her mother very happy.

Maria Montez was not the biggest supporter of Gabriella and Danny's relationship. She thought that Danny was a slacker and wouldn't amount to anything in life, which essentially prompted Maria to conclude that Danny was not good enough for her little girl. At one moment in time, Maria was happy that Gabriella had finally found a boyfriend and seemed to truly be in love. Now things were different, but different in a way that Gabriella couldn't possibly discuss with her mother.

Clutching her purse a little bit tighter and straightening her posture, Gabriella walked through the elevator doors and out into the law offices of her internship. She had a little cubicle in the corner of the large office, which was situated with a few other cubicles reserved for the interns. She had joked with one of her fellow interns the day before about their being "castaways at intern island" because of how far they were from the heart of the office. They were right next to the bathrooms and the kitchen, which were always positive things.

There were four cubicles within "cubicle island", the three of which had already been filled by Gabriella, a young girl named Izzy, and a young man named Peter. Izzy and Peter had went to college together and were friends, which made Gabriella feel as if she was acting as the third wheel, even after one day of work. There was supposed to be another intern sitting next to Gabriella, but the desk was still empty. Gabriella hoped that the intern backed down at the last minute, which would have allowed her to have a little bit more office space.

Sitting down, Gabriella plugged in her earphones and began to get started on her tasks for the day. She had a list of names and addresses that were to be typed up in an excel document by 10:30am and wanted to get started right away. After picking a song to listen to, Gabriella was suddenly interrupted by a loud crash behind her desk. Ripping her earphones out, Gabriella swung around and was greeted by a young man who had dropped a box of desk supplies all over the floor. The young man had dirty blonde hair and was frantically trying to pick up everything that had spilled out from his box. Rushing out of her seat, Gabriella joined the young man on the ground and began helping him pick up some of the paper clips that were strewn across the small space of "cubicle island."

"You've got quite a lot of stuff here." Gabriella commented as she picked up a large stapler and placed it in his box.

"It's my first day, well, yesterday was supposed to be my first day but I caught some nasty virus, sorry, too much information," the young man babbled as he continued to throw his supplies into the brown cardboard box, "my name is Troy. I think i'm going to be sitting next to you, right here," he said, pointing to the cubicle next to Gabriella.

"Oh, cool!" Gabriella exclaimed, while actually sighing inside at the fact that her cubicle extension would not be happening. "I'm Gabriella. Let me know if you need help with anything."

Troy nodded, picked up the final paper clip on the ground, and darted over to his cubicle. Sitting down, Troy placed his head in his hands and chucked. He made an interesting first impression, that was for sure.

After what felt like days, Gabriella closed her laptop and started towards the kitchen for her lunch break. Troy was still working, which made Gabriella feel a little bit better. She didn't have anything against Troy, but she certainly did not feel like being forced into small talk with a fellow intern that had literally crashed into her life earlier in the morning. Pulling her salad out of the refrigerator, Gabriella took a seat at one of the tables set in the corner of the kitchen. Just as Gabriella began to take a bite of her lunch, she was suddenly interrupted by the ringtone that she knew all too well. Danny was calling her.

Contemplating on whether or not she should answer the phone call, Gabriella began to feel her face slowly turning red. Worst case scenario, Danny was drunk and was calling to ramble about some bullshit that she didn't care about. Taking a deep breath as she pressed the little green button on her phone, Gabriella mentally prepared herself for a conversation that she did not want to have.

" _Where are you?!,"_ Danny practically screamed into the phone.

"I'm at work, Dan. What's wrong?"

" _You ignored me. Why do you always ignore me? What is wrong with you?"_

Feeling her heart beginning to beat faster and faster, Gabriella pushed her salad into the center of the table and placed her clenched fist onto the table. Trying to whisper as she spoke into the phone, Gabriella took another deep breath and replied to Danny's questioning.

"I didn't ignore you Danny, I took a bath last night and must have missed your call. I didn't look at my phone until this morning. I'm sorry."

Practically screaming into the phone, Danny continued with his rant, which soon became almost deafening for Gabriella.

" _I do everything for youuuuu- an you do nothing AT ALL."_

"Danny, please listen to me. I'm going to come over after work and will make you those brownies like you asked? You sound like you've been drinking-."

" _I can driiiinkkk if I WANT tooo,"_ Danny continued, clearly stumbling over his words. It was only noon.

"Please Danny," Gabriella pleaded with her intoxicated boyfriend, "please don't drive anywhere. I'll even make you dinner later, how about spaghetti?" Her voice began to tremble as she forced the words out of her mouth that he expected her to say. "I love you, Dan. Go watch some TV or something until I get there."

" _You better love me."_ Danny hung up the phone, leaving Gabriella hanging on the phone line.

Placing her phone on the table and her head in her hands, Gabriella tried her hardest to maintain her cool. She couldn't start crying here, right now, on her second day of her internship at one of the best law firms in New Mexico. The warm tears began to make their escape from Gabriella's dark brown eyes, but were suddenly interrupted by a new, but soothing voice.

"You alright?" Troy asked cautiously from the other side of the kitchen. He had been standing by the sink throughout the duration of Gabriella's phone call, but didn't really know what to do. By the sounds of it, whoever she was talking to had some issues.

Startled, Gabriella quickly wiped the tears from her cheeks and forced out a smile. "Yeah, i'm great, really fine."

Picking his sandwich up from the counter, Troy began to walk over to Gabriella's table in the corner and placed his water bottle down on the table. "Is it alright if I sit here?"

"Yeah, of course." Gabriella quickly replied as she retrieved her barely eaten salad and put the lid back on its container. She wasn't hungry anymore.

"So," Troy started as he finished chewing a bite from his sandwich, "this place is pretty nice! Do you want to be a lawyer?"

"Yeah," Gabriella said, nodding her head in agreement. "You want to be a lawyer too?"

"Actually, I'm not too sure. I double majored in political science and computer engineering. I'm trying to figure out what my destiny is."

Gabriella laughed as Troy continued to eat his sandwich. "Aren't we all?"

After what felt like five minutes, which had really been an hour, Gabriella and Troy cleaned up their table and began to walk back to their respective cubicles. During their lunch break, they talked about college, their favorite movies, and the best places to eat around town. Troy had just moved to Albuquerque and was still figuring everything out, which amused Gabriella. Their conversation felt so natural, which was something that Gabriella was not used to.

Sitting back down at her desk, Gabriella opened her laptop up and was about to begin working again when she was suddenly interrupted by her new cubicle buddy.

"You sure that you're alright?" Troy asked, peeking his head over the cubicle wall that separated their desks.

"Positive." Gabriella half-lied as she flashed a smile to Troy. She was feeling better after her jovial lunchtime chatter with Troy, but still felt as if she was going to collapse into a puddle of tears with the mere thought of having to go to Danny's apartment after work.

After stopping at the grocery store to pick up some supplies for dinner and for the brownies, Gabriella pulled into the all-too-familiar parking spot in front of Danny's apartment. She was probably the only visitor that he had at his dump of an apartment, considering that he didn't talk to his parents anymore and that his sister refused to bring her kids to spend time with their dopey uncle. Danny didn't have any friends besides the guys that he worked with, which left all the more time for Danny to spend with Gabriella. Composing herself before leaving the car, Gabriella slowly made her way up to the apartment door and knocked three times.

Danny, who looked as if he hadn't shaved in a couple of days, was wearing an old football t-shirt from high school and a pair of gym shorts. His breath smelled of doritos and beer, which was the last thing that Gabriella wanted to smell as she kissed him on the cheek before walking inside.

"So, what'd you get for me?" Danny chuckled as he leaned up against the door after closing it.

"Well," Gabriella started, forcing a smile on her face, "I got your favorite pasta-"

"Ziti." Danny interrupted.

"Yes, with your favorite red sauce. I picked up some ingredients for brownies and got some extra chocolate chips. I know you like those brownies when they're packed with chocolate."

Danny chuckled again, "Well, I guess you should know what I like by now. What, it's been seven years together?"

Nodding and taking a deep breath, Gabriella replied, "Yep, well, it will be seven years in a couple of weeks." How had it already been seven years?

Taking the shopping bags, Gabriella started into the kitchen. At least he seemed to be a little bit more sober than when he called her earlier. In the other room, Danny had turned football on and was probably drinking a beer of some sort. Gabriella didn't like to drink, especially because she saw how it turned people who she thought loved her into monsters with the potential to turn her life upside down.

After putting the brownies into the oven, Gabriella scooped up some of the finished pasta into two bowls and walked into the living room. Danny's apartment looked like a pig sty. There were empty bottles all over the room and dirty work clothes thrown all over the couches, which produced a pungent odor. Gabriella kept her thoughts about the state of Danny's apartment to herself- the last time she tried to urge Danny to clean the apartment up a little ended with a fight and memories that Gabriella wanted to erase.

Cutting the silence, Gabriella began to try and procure some type of small talk out of the nothingness that was present in the living room. "How was your day off, Dan? Did you do anything special."

Danny shook his head, his eyes glued to the TV screen.

As if with perfect timing the kitchen timer finally went off, allowing Gabriella to escape the loud noise of the football game that Danny had been glued to. She grabbed a towel and pulled the brownies out of the oven. Opening the freezer to see if he had any vanilla ice cream, Gabriella was shocked by the emptiness in front of her. Danny's freezer had nothing in it besides a half-empty bottle of vodka. She opened his refrigerator and and once again, was greeted by a startling emptiness, with the only exception to that emptiness being a twelve pack of beer and a few eggs.

"Hey Dan," Gabriella started with caution, "you don't have any food in here? Do you need me to buy you some stuff to eat?"

"Well," Danny sarcastically replied, "it's your fault that I don't have any food. You stopped making me dinner after you started interviewing for your stupid internship."

Fighting back tears, Gabriella shut the door to the refrigerator and turned to start slicing up the brownies. "I'm sorry, Dan."

With a plate of fudge brownies in hand, Gabriella slowly walked back into the living room. Danny turned towards Gabriella and patted the cushion next to him, signaling for Gabriella to come sit next to him. She placed the plate of brownies down on the coffee table and sat next to Danny, where she was immediately wrapped up in a tight, one-armed hug.

Gabriella placed her head on Danny's shoulder and closed her eyes. He was probably going to fall asleep soon, which meant that she would be able to go home soon after. After a couple of seconds, Danny let Gabriella out of the tight bear hug and dove into the brownies, which allowed Gabriella to breathe again. She leaned back on the couch and closed her eyes.

"Why are you so tired? Wake up!" Danny barked at Gabriella as he crammed another brownie into his mouth.

Slowly opening her eyes, Gabriella quietly replied. "I'm tired, Dan. I had a long day at work."

"Well, I had a long day of sitting around here waiting for you to get your ass here to make me these brownies!" Danny complained as he crammed yet another brownie into his mouth.

Gabriella nodded and began to get up, when Danny suddenly yanked her back down onto the couch. "I was going to do the dishes, Dan."

"That can wait." Danny said as he planted a kiss on Gabriella's neck.

"No, really Dan," Gabriella started as she shrugged, trying to stop Danny's actions, "I want to go do the dishes."

"Fine!" Danny yelled as he threw his hands up into the air. "That's fine. Fine. Fine!"

Gabriella stood up and slowly walked into the kitchen. Hopefully Danny would be asleep by the time that she finished cleaning up from their dinner. Taking the dirty bowl in her hands, Gabriella began to run water over the red sauce that covered the inside of the bowl. There weren't too many dishes to do, but Gabriella was prepared to make the dishwashing take as long as humanly possible.

After what was around half an hour, Gabriella put the final bowl back into its designated spot in the cabinet. Slowly walking back into the living room, Gabriella was greeted with the sight that she hoped that she would be seeing. Danny had sprawled out on the couch and was fast asleep. Knowing that she only had a limited amount of time before some loud commercial woke Danny up from his slumber, Gabriella ripped a piece of paper out from a notebook that was laying on the ground and began to write a little note for Danny. It read-

" _Danny,_

 _Thank you for such a wonderful night. I'm so lucky to have a boyfriend like you._

 _Love,_

 _Gabriella"_

Gritting her teeth as she signed her name, Gabriella placed the note next to the plate of devoured brownies that used to be on the coffee table, grabbed her purse, ran out the door, and slipped into her car. Before getting the chance to turn the car on Gabriella's heart began to race. She finally allowed the tears that she had been holding in since the morning to escape from her dark brown eyes. Pulling her knees up to her chest, Gabriella wrapped her arms around her legs and placed her head in her lap as she sobbed. How had she let things get like this?

 **So, how'd you guys like the chapter! What do you think of Danny? Are you excited for Gabriella and Troy to get to know each other? Let me know what you think may happen! Until next time,**

 **~Meg**


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